Hold On To Your Handbags Ladies – These Thieves Have Style

Anyone remember the Sex and the City moment when Carrie has her Manolo’s snatched? They wanted her shoes – say what? Well, such crime is no longer confined to the silver screen, nor the streets of Manhattan.

Early yesterday morning, two fashion houses, Brora on Marylebone High Street and Luella Bartley in Mayfair, were broken into and handfuls of handbags and cashmere seized. The villains – reported to have travelled by moped – skilfully dodged CCTV recognition through their choice of crash helmet attire and blackened bike license plates. Smashing their way through the entrances with a sledgehammer, the gang chose the early hours to strike – a time when Sienna and Co are seldom about.

These are not the first incidences of such nature: earlier this year, jewellers Asprey and Avakian lost several of their sparkly merchandise, while in June thousands of pounds worth of footwear was stolen from Roger Vivier.

The ‘Fashion’ police believe the incidences are related. Said DCI Martin Johnson: “This is something that happens infrequently across the West End; we’d be foolish not to link them, based on the method employed.”

Johnson also states that the most likely motivation behind the thefts is resale on the black market: “Unfortunately there’s always a market for these goods, high-value goods which are easy to dispose of”. If this be the case, then Londonist wants to know a) where we can get them and b) for how much?